Donkey

The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, Equus africanus, and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, Equus africanus asinus, or as a separate species, Equus asinus. It was domesticated in Africa some years ago, and has been used mainly as a working animal since that time.
There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, where they are used principally as draught or pack animals. While working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence, small numbers of donkeys or asses are kept for breeding, as pets, and for livestock protection in developed countries.
An adult male donkey is a jack or jackass, an adult female is a jenny or jennet, and an immature donkey of either sex is a foal. Jacks are often mated with female horses to produce mules; the less common hybrid of a male horse and jenny is a hinny.

Nomenclature

Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus, on the basis of the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. However, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 2003 that if the domestic and the wild species are considered subspecies of a common species, the scientific name of the wild species has priority, even when that subspecies was described after the domestic subspecies. This means that the proper scientific name for the donkey is Equus africanus asinus when it is considered a subspecies and Equus asinus when it is considered a species.
At one time, the synonym ass was the more common term for the donkey. The first recorded use of donkey was in either 1784 or 1785. While the word ass has cognates in most other Indo-European languages, donkey is an etymologically obscure word for which no credible cognate has been identified. Hypotheses on its derivation include the following:

perhaps from Spanish for its don-like gravity; the donkey was also known as "the King of Spain's trumpeter".
perhaps a diminutive of dun, a typical donkey colour.
perhaps from the name Duncan.
perhaps of imitative origin.

From the 18th century, donkey gradually replaced ass and jenny replaced she-ass, which is now considered archaic. The change may have come about through a tendency to avoid pejorative terms in speech and may be comparable to the substitution in North American English of rooster for cock. By the end of the 17th century, changes in pronunciation of both ass and arse had caused them to become homophones in some varieties of English. Other words used for the ass in English from this time include cuddy in Scotland, neddy in southwestern England and dicky in southeastern England; moke is documented in the 19th century and may be of Welsh or Romani origin.
Burro is a word for donkey in both Spanish and Portuguese. In the United States, it is commonly applied to the feral donkeys that live west of the Rocky Mountains; it may also refer to any small donkey.

History

The genus Equus, which includes all extant equines, is believed to have evolved from Dinohippus, via the intermediate form Plesippus. One of the oldest species is Equus simplicidens, described as zebra-like with a donkey-shaped head. The oldest fossil to date is approximately 3.5 million years old, and was located in the US state of Idaho. The genus appears to have spread quickly into the Old World, with the similarly aged Equus livenzovensis documented from western Europe and Russia.
Molecular phylogenies indicate the most recent common ancestor of all modern equids lived ~5.6 mya. Direct paleogenomic sequencing of a 700,000-year-old middle Pleistocene horse metapodial bone from Canada implies a more recent 4.07 Myr before present date for the most recent common ancestor within the range of 4.0 to 4.5 Myr BP. The oldest divergencies are the Asian hemiones, followed by the African zebras , and E.. All other modern forms including the domesticated horse belong to the subgenus E. which diverged ~4.8 million years ago.
The ancestors of the modern donkey are the Nubian and Somalian subspecies of African wild ass. Remains of domestic donkeys dating to the fourth millennium BC have been found in Ma'adi in Lower Egypt, and it is believed that the domestication of the donkey was accomplished long after the domestication of cattle, sheep and goats in the seventh and eighth millennia BC. Donkeys were probably first domesticated by pastoral people in Nubia, and they supplanted the ox as the chief pack animal of that culture. Genetic evidence indicates that the Cushitic-speaking peoples in the Horn of Africa and along the Red Sea Hills separately domesticated the animal. The domestication of donkeys served to increase the mobility of pastoral cultures, having the advantage over ruminants of not needing time to chew their cud, and were vital in the development of long-distance trade across Egypt. In the Dynasty IV era of Egypt, between 2675 and 2565 BC, wealthy members of society were known to own over 1,000 donkeys, employed in agriculture, as dairy and meat animals and as pack animals. In 2003, the tomb of either King Narmer or King Hor-Aha was excavated and the skeletons of ten donkeys were found buried in a manner usually used with high ranking humans. These burials show the importance of donkeys to the early Egyptian state and its ruler.
By the end of the fourth millennium BC, the donkey had spread to Southwest Asia, and the main breeding centre had shifted to Mesopotamia by 1800 BC. The breeding of large, white riding asses made Damascus famous, while Syrian breeders developed at least three other breeds, including one preferred by women for its easy gait. The Muscat or Yemen ass was developed in Arabia. By the second millennium BC, the donkey was brought to Europe, possibly at the same time as viticulture was introduced, as the donkey is associated with the Syrian god of wine, Dionysus. Greeks spread both of these to many of their colonies, including those in what are now Italy, France and Spain; Romans dispersed them throughout their empire.
The first donkeys came to the Americas on ships of the Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus, and were landed at Hispaniola in 1495. The first to reach North America may have been two animals taken to Mexico by Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, who arrived there on 6 December 1528, while the first donkeys to reach what is now the United States may have crossed the Rio Grande with Juan de Oñate in April 1598. From that time on they spread northward, finding use in missions and mines. Donkeys were documented as present in what today is Arizona in 1679. By the Gold Rush years of the 19th century, the burro was the beast of burden of choice of early prospectors in the western United States. By the end of the placer mining boom, many of them escaped or were abandoned, and a feral population established itself.

Conservation status

About 41 million donkeys were reported worldwide in 2006. China had the most with 11 million, followed by Pakistan, Ethiopia and Mexico. As of 2017, however, the Chinese population was reported to have dropped to 3 million, with African populations under pressure as well, due to increasing trade and demand for donkey products in China. Some researchers believe the actual number may be somewhat higher since many donkeys go uncounted. The number of breeds and percentage of world population for each of the FAO's world regions was in 2006:

Region	No. of breeds	% of world pop.
Africa	26	26.9
Asia and Pacific	32	37.6
Europe and the Caucasus	51	3.7
Latin America and the Caribbean	24	19.9
Near and Middle East	47	11.8
United States and Canada	5	0.1
World	185	41 million head

In 1997, the number of donkeys in the world was reported to be continuing to grow, as it had steadily done throughout most of history; factors cited as contributing to this were increasing human population, progress in economic development and social stability in some poorer nations, conversion of forests to farm and range land, rising prices of motor vehicles and fuel, and the popularity of donkeys as pets.
Since then, the world population of donkeys is reported to be rapidly shrinking, falling from 43.7 million to 43.5 million between 1995 and 2000, and to only 41 million in 2006. The fall in population is pronounced in developed countries; in Europe, the total number of donkeys fell from 3 million in 1944 to just over 1 million in 1994.
The Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the FAO listed 189 breeds of ass in June 2011. In 2000 the number of breeds of donkey recorded worldwide was 97, and in 1995 it was 77. The rapid increase is attributed to attention paid to identification and recognition of donkey breeds by the FAO's Animal Genetic Resources project. The rate of recognition of new breeds has been particularly high in some developed countries. In France only one breed, the Baudet du Poitou, was recognised until the early 1990s; by 2005, a further six donkey breeds had official recognition.
In developed countries, the welfare of donkeys both at home and abroad has become a concern, and a number of sanctuaries for retired and rescued donkeys have been set up. The largest is The Donkey Sanctuary near Sidmouth, England, which also supports donkey welfare projects in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, and Mexico.
In 2017, a drop in the number of Chinese donkeys, combined with the fact that they are slow to reproduce, meant that Chinese suppliers began to look to Africa. As a result of the increase in demand, and the price that could be charged, Kenya opened three donkey abattoirs. Concerns for donkeys' well-being have resulted in a number of African countries banning China from buying their donkey products.
In 2019, The Donkey Sanctuary warned that the global donkey population could be reduced by half over the next half decade as the demand for ejiao increases in China.